By Rhianna Pratchett in London 24 November 2003
The original Matrix did for long leather jackets and PVC cat suits what "The Italian Job" did for Minis skillfully blending goth chic with a mixture of kung-fu action and sci-fi to create one of the most exhilarating films of the late ‘90s. The second film, "The Matrix: Reloaded" opted to laboriously sprinkle pop-philosophy over the world of Neo (Keanu Reeves), Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss) and the city of Zion. But the third and latest incarnation, "The Matrix Revolutions", is a partial return to the form of the original film, with its core firmly centered on good old-fashioned, no-nonsense action.
This time Zion must fight for its life against an onslaught from the machines, whilst Neo battles it out with the now super-powerful Agent Smith (Hugo Weaving). There’s still a fair amount of over-egging things though, with verbose speeches and a particularly prolonged death-scene, but this is tempered with some great battle action between Zion’s forces and the machines. However, despite being the central figure, Neo definitely isn’t a show-stealer and you can’t help but feel that the character hasn’t really evolved since the end of the original movie and is simply coasting along for the final battle. Instead, it’s characters such as the feisty Jada Pinkett Smith as captain Niobe and Morpheus (played by the would-look-cool-in-an-oven Laurence Fishburne) who help give the film some spunk.
The CGI special effects come thick and fast, but unlike the second film where the constant onslaught of protracted fight scenes became mind-numbing, the concentration on enhancing the sci-fi elements of the film (the machine city, Zion’s giant robot suits and the cyber-squid sentinels) is far more satisfying than watching a thousand angry Hugo Weavings.
"Revolutions" comes as somewhat of a relief after the cloying and smug "Reloaded". While it doesn’t have the sheer impact of the original, and still has a tendency to tangle itself up in its own rhetoric, it’s a fairly entertaining finale - for special effects if nothing else - to the Matrix universe.
UK Release Date: 5 November 2003
Celebrities Worldwide Rating: 7.3 out of 10
David Jensen Photography:
https://www.davidjensen.co.uk/
